1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print system, a control method therefor, an information processing apparatus, control method therefore, a control program for implementing the control method, and a storage medium storing the control program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional print system, there has been employed a technique referred to as “box storage”, in which a host computer is caused to transmit print data, and an output apparatus is caused to store print data transmitted from the host computer in a storage device referred to as “a box” provided in the output apparatus for storage, and then to output the print data which is stored in the box. With the above technique, the output apparatus can repeatedly output the print data stored in the box to thereby save the time required for printing the same print data a plurality of times.
On the other hand, recently there have been demands for means for preventing wiretapping of print data upon transmission from a host computer to an output apparatus, means for protecting the print data inside the output apparatus, and means for preventing snooping of printed sheets output by the output apparatus by a third party. To meet such demands, there has been proposed a technique in which print data, which have been encrypted by a host computer using a password or an IC card of a user, are accumulated in an output apparatus, and the user instructs the output apparatus to finally output print data using the password or IC card used for the encryption (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H09-134264, for example). However, it is unrealistic in terms of the cost to install various types of IC card readers on the output apparatus depending on the customer environments. Moreover, there is a strong need for using an existing output apparatus to carry out a highly secure print without purchasing a new output apparatus.
To solve these problems, there has been proposed a technique referred to as “encrypted print”, in which a host computer encrypts print data, and a print server accumulates the encrypted print data, decrypts the encrypted print data using a password or an IC card, and transmits the decrypted print data to an output apparatus. A transmission path between the print server and the output apparatus can be selected from a protected network, a Centronics cable, a USB cable, and the like according to the customer's desire, and it is thus possible to easily adapt to various customer environments and existing models.
However, with the technique of the encrypted print using the print server, since the print server transmits the decrypted print data to the output apparatus, it is useless to accumulate the print data encrypted by the host computer using a password or IC card in the output apparatus. As a result, if the print data designated to be subjected to the encrypted print is designated to be stored by the box storage, the print data is stored in a non-encrypted (plain text) state in the box. Consequently, a third party can operate the box to output the print data, or to transmit the print data by electronic mail or facsimile. There is thus a desire for a means which inhibits simultaneous use of the encrypted print and the box storage to increase the security of the print data.